BackLenskart to expand premium segment presence through new John Jacobs stores
The label, which has three retail stores across Delhi and Bengaluru, is set to launch a fourth one next week
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New Delhi: Online eyewear retailer Lenskart, which forayed into the premium segment with private label John Jacobs a couple of years ago, is now planning to expand the label’s footprint in India by launching new stores, according to a top company executive.
The label, which has three retail stores across Delhi and Bengaluru, is set to launch a fourth one next week. The company aims to have 10 John Jacobs retail outlets in the next one year across the two cities.
While Lenskart launched the first John Jacobs retail store in 2015 to test waters in the premium market, it remained quiet about this pilot until recently when the company decided to open more stores.
In March 2016, Lenskart, run by Lenskart Solutions Pvt. Ltd, appointed former chief executive of food delivery company Foodora Sambuddha Bhattacharya as business head to spearhead John Jacobs.
According to the company, while John Jacobs brand is owned by Lenskart Solutions Pvt. Ltd, a franchise of Lenskart, DealsKart Online Services Pvt. Ltd, operates and runs the website and stores of John Jacobs.
DealsKart is owned by Lenskart founder Peyush Bansal along with Usha Singhal and Neetu Mittal, according to official documents filed with the registrar of companies.
Talking to Mint, Bhattacharya explained that Lenskart supplies materials to franchisee DealsKart to run front-end operations.
However, the need to create an independent website, mobile application (currently work in progress) and retail stores for John Jacobs lies in the fact that it caters to a different market segment than Lenskart, said Bhattacharya.
“While Lenskart’s vision is to become a (multi-brand) retailer, (focus on) tier 2 expansion, go on to provide affordable access to eyewear, it made more sense to create John Jacobs a separate (premium) brand because we are solving a different problem... (Through John Jacobs) we are building to be in the affordable luxury segment," he said.
A team of 32, the stand-alone brand John Jacobs targets 25-35-year-olds, selling them eyewear at an average price of Rs4,000. 90% of its sales come through its retail stores. Clocking an average of over $830,000 in monthly revenues, the company expects John Jacobs to register $10 million revenue for fiscal 2016-17, up jump from $4 million.
The premium brand also retails through shop-in-shop agreement with retail stores of Shoppers Stop, and services online orders from Australia, Philippines and the UK.
Delhi-based multi-brand retailer Lenskart sells eyeglasses, sunglasses, contact lenses and eyewear accessories. It has retail stores across 90 cities, and targets Rs3,000 revenue by 2020. During fiscal 2015-16, it posted a 63% jump in revenues to Rs99 crore, Mint reported on 4 January. Read more
Backed by World Bank arm IFC, Ratan Tata, Premji Invest, Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan and IDG Ventures, among others, Lenskart has raised over $120 million since inception in 2010.
Changing consumer perception of eyewear makes premium a lucrative segment, said Sreedhar Prasad, partner, internet commerce, KPMG. “With increase in incomes of middle class and upper middle class, their propensity to spend on fashion and accessories have increased. At the same time, eyewear has moved from being a healthcare product to becoming an accessory."
He explained that the age at which a user is likely to be prescribed spectacles is reducing, that is, the population wearing eyeglasses is getting younger. “These (young) consumers are more brand conscious and fashion conscious—willing to spend on multiple pairs of spectacles matching (social) occasions," Prasad added.
In the next one year, John Jacobs will also be launching its marketing campaign, including television commercials. Bhattacharya declined to comment on the marketing spend.
“We have large format stores (900-1100 square feet size)... Depending on the area and the locality, it costs an average of Rs40 lakh to set up a store," he added.
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